Demi Bennett is an Australian professional wrestler who is known by her in-ring name Rhea Ripley. She gained fame for her career in the WWE’s NXT UK brand. She was inaugural NXT UK Women’s Champion as well as a former NXT Women’s Champion and a former Raw Women’s Champion whereas she won the first-ever NXT UK Women’s Championship in 2018. Ripley also won the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37. She started her pro wrestling career in 2013 with the Australian promotion Riot City Wrestling and later signed with the WWE in 2017. She competed at the WWE’s 2017 Mae Young Classic, where she made her debut as Rhea Ripley. She made her WWE NXT debut in October 2017. Additionally, Rhea competed against Raquel Gonzalez in a Last Woman Standing match Ripley lost to Gonzalez in her final match in NXT on the first edition of NXT for 2021, New Year’s Evil.
Charlotte Flair Beats Rhea Ripley
Rhea Ripley was defeated by Charlotte Flair at WWE Money in the Bank on Sunday to win the Raw Women’s Championship. With Ripley visibly favoring the leg, The Queen applied the Figure-Eight Leglock, and the Australian eventually had no choice but to tap out. With the victory, Flair is now a five-time Raw women’s champion and 14-time women’s titleholder overall during her WWE tenure. Adding insult to injury, Ripley attacked Flair after the match was called off, and they brawled back into the ring until the Aussie put The Queen down for good with Riptide.
The next night on Raw, WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville addressed the situation and agreed that Flair deserved another title shot. As a result, she was given her rematch at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Sunday marked The Queen’s third title opportunity since she was left off the WrestleMania 37 card, as she was also part of a Triple Threat involving Ripley and Asuka at WrestleMania Backlash. Ripley won that match by pinning The Empress of Tomorrow, meaning she technically still hasn’t beaten Flair. The history between The Queen and Ripley dates back to WrestleMania 36 when the former beat the latter for the NXT Women’s Championship after having won the 2020 women’s Royal Rumble match.
Source: @whatculture
Famous For
- Being an Australian professional wrestler.
- For her career in the WWE’s NXT UK brand.
What is Rhea Ripley Nationality?
Rhea Ripley opened her eyes for the very first time on 11th October 1996 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. She was conceived with the real name of Demi Bennett in a Christian religious family. She is of Australian nationality and she belongs to Australian-white ethnicity. Rhea has celebrated her 24th birthday as of 2020 and as per her birth date, her star sign is Libra. Thus, her race is white. She is the daughter of her father, Peter Bennett whereas her mother’s name is unknown. She also has a sibling a sister named Cali Bennett.
How was the Wrestling Career of Rhea Ripley?
Rhea Ripley kicks off her wrestling career in Riot City Wrestling in 2013 where she became a two-time RCW Women’s Champion whereas her New Horizon Pro Wrestling debut was made on 24th May 2014 during the opening night of the NHPW Global Conflict where she joined the Global Conflict Tournament.
She made her Melbourne City Wrestling debut on 14th June 2014 at MCW New Horizons where she defended the RCW Women’s title in a Three-Way match against Savannah Summers and Toni Storm.
She wrestled her last RCW match at RCW Strength on 22nd April 2017 and successfully defended the Women’s title against Kellyanne.
WWE
- Demi signed with the WWE in 2017 and compete in the inaugural Mae Young Classic under the new name Rhea Ripley.
- She then made her NXT television debut on the 25th October 2017 episode of “NXT” and competed in the 2018 Mae Young Classic.
- She became part of the NXT UK brand as part of the premiere of the newly-created “NXT UK” show as well as took part in an eight-woman tournament to determine the inaugural NXT UK Women’s Champion.
- She defeats Xia Brookside in the first round, Dakota Kai in the semi-finals, and Toni Storm in the final to become the inaugural champion. She also became the first female Australian champion in WWE history and the second Australian champion.
- Ripley also competed in a dark match before the first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view in October, Evolution, where she successfully retained her title against Dakota Kai however, she lost her title to Toni Storm on 12th January 2019 at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool.
- She made her first appearance on the main roster pay-per-view at the Royal Rumble event by entering the women’s Royal Rumble match at number 2.
- As well, she wrestled her last match in the brand on 5th October 2019 tapings of NXT UK, defeating Nina Samuels in a singles match.
- Later she made her surprise return to the brand when she interrupted NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler on 28th August 2019.
- Ripley and Tegan Nox were one of the many NXT wrestlers to invade the show, challenging Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville to a tag team match on the 1st November episode of “SmackDown”, from which Ripley and Nox emerged victoriously.
- She led Team Ripley in the first-ever women’s WarGames match against Team Baszler at TakeOver: WarGames whereas she was part of Team NXT, who defeated Team Raw and Team SmackDown, and the leader of her team in the 5-on-5-on-5 women’s elimination match at Survivor Series.
- Ripley defeated Baszler to win the NXT Women’s Championship on the 18th December episode of “NXT” which made her the first person to have won both the NXT Women’s and NXT UK Women’s Championships. She successfully defended the title against Toni Storm on 25th January 2020 at Worlds Collide.
- She made an appearance on the 3rd February 2020 episode of “Raw”, confronting Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair and suggesting that Flair should use her Royal Rumble title opportunity to challenge Ripley for the NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36.
- She successfully defended the championship against Belair at the aforementioned event but lost the title to Flair on the second night of WrestleMania 36.
- WWE announced the next day after WrestleMania that Rhea took hiatus from WWE and returned to Australia due to her visa issues whereas she returned on 6 May episode of “NXT” after a one-month hiatus.
- She defeated Aliyah and Robert Stone in a 1-on-2 handicap match by submission on the 1st July episode of NXT The Great American Bash as well as she challenged Shirai for the NXT Women’s Championship on the 18th November episode of “NXT”, but was unsuccessful.
- Also, she was announced as a member of Shotzi Blackheart’s team for the second-ever women’s WarGames match on the 2nd December episode of “NXT”.
- She competed against Raquel Gonzalez in a Last Woman Standing match Ripley lost to Gonzalez in her final match in “NXT” on the first edition of NXT for 2021, New Year’s Evil.
- Rhea competed in her second Women’s Royal Rumble match entering at number 14 where she ended up with 7 eliminations and one of the final two in the match before she was eliminated by eventual winner Bianca Belair.
- A video package aired hyping up Rhea’s arrival to the brand on 22nd February 2021. She made her main roster debut on the 22nd March 2021 episode of “Raw”, challenging Asuka to a match for the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37 whereas Asuka accepted Rhea’s challenge, and the match was scheduled to take place on Night 2 of WrestleMania on 11th April. She defeated Asuka to win the Raw Women’s Championship at Wrestlemania 37.
- Then she was scheduled to defend the title in a rematch against Asuka on the “Raw” episode after WrestleMania as the match ended in a no-contest after interference from Charlotte Flair, who attacked both Asuka and Ripley.
- Another rematch between Ripley and Asuka on 3rd May for the Raw Women’s Championship was scheduled for WrestleMania Backlash however, WWE official Sonya Deville added Flair to the championship match to make it a triple threat match.
- Rhea successfully retained her title by pinning Asuka at the event and a match between Ripley and Flair was then scheduled for Hell in a Cell, in which Flair defeated Ripley by disqualification, thus Ripley retained her title.
- However, she dropped the title to Flair in another rematch at Money in the Bank, ending her reign at 98 days.
- Apart from wrestling, Bennett made her video game debut as a playable character in “WWE 2K20” and subsequently in “WWE 2K Battlegrounds”.
Source: @essentiallysports
Awards and Achievements
CBS Sports
- Breakthrough Wrestler of the Year (2019)
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Ranked No. 11 of the top 100 female wrestlers in the PWI Women’s 100 in 2020
Riot City Wrestling
- RCW Women’s Championship (2 times)
Sports Illustrated
- Ranked No. 7 of the top 10 women’s wrestlers in 2019.
WWE
- WWE Raw Women’s Championship (1 time)
- NXT Women’s Championship (1 time)
- NXT UK Women’s Championship (1 time)
- NXT UK Women’s Championship Tournament (2018)
Who is Rhea Ripley Boyfriend?
Rhea Ripley is an unmarried lady. Thus, she has no husband. She is in a romantic relationship with her handsome boyfriend Demetri “Action” Jackson who is a fellow wrestler. She confirmed her relationship with him in October 2019. There is a greater possibility of her marriage after all she seems happy in her relationship with her boyfriend. Talking about her sexual orientation, she is straight. Furthermore, Demi currently resides in Orlando, Florida, United States.
Source: @essentiallysports
How much is Rhea Ripley Net Worth?
Rhea Ripley is a versatile wrestler who has a net worth of $1 million as of 2021. She also earns a fine amount of salary which is around $250, 000 per year. She has reached great heights in her career already and she still has a lot more to do. Rhea has not done any endorsement work yet. Her major source of income is from her wrestling career.
How tall is Rhea Ripley?
Rhea Ripley is 5 ft 8½ in or 174 cm tall whereas her body weighs around 62 kg or 136.5 lbs. She has good-looking natural blonde hair and blue eyes. Her often sports short hair and pierced ears have attracted a lot of people towards her. She has an athletic body build with 34-30-35 inches of body measurement.
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